My sacrifice area will be a lot more useful with a wind block. Shelter in the field is on the list for next year, but just wasn’t high up enough this year to get it done.
We’re considering buying some large bales of corn stalks to stack 2 high for a wind break. I realize this is a ghetto solution, but any feedback?
Sounds like baled cornstalks would be a good windblock, fast and easy to put up. Beats no windbreak at all.
Will the bales be outside the fence? Horses chewing on stalks might get into moldy items, so might be best if they can’t reach the bales.
I did that one year only problem is that the horses eat/rubbed the bottom don’t hold up well. If you can park you horse trailer there that will work. I have done that before and it works.
After X-mas you might do a stack of discarded X-mas trees.
Stacking bales is a perfectly good solution. Agree that your horses will eat them, so I’d tarp if they’re not already field-wrapped.
The wind last night and now is brutal. The horses have hills and dales and lots of natural breaks but I so wish the barn was up to tuck them all into. Wind and days of rain on end. Not sure which is worse for them but the wind exhausts me.
I parked my truck and trailer out there last winter. (F-250 ext. cab w/ 8’ bed + 26ft 2H gooseneck) Worked well, actually. I’d check and see where the storm was coming from and tweak the angle it was parked to get the best windbreak effect. That plus really good blankets and my guys were toasty and warm.
I’d be concerned with the horses eating all that corn stalk, maybe not an issue but something to consider. Look in the for sale ads for someone selling a car port shelter that you could get cheap and then put plywood on 2 or 3 of the sides or one of those barn style sheds someone needs to get ride of, ceiling height won’t be tall but better than nothing. I had a temporary stall that had a low ceiling, none of my horses ever hit their heads in it, used it for 3 years.
Didn’t someone here on COTH make a shed wall out of panels of privacy fencing from their local big box store? Panels were stood on edge for height, I think. I thought it was a really clever idea, and it looked pretty good!
*** Found it! It was GypsyQ!
“We are making the walls for this shed with privacy fence panels from Lowe’s. We are planning a kickboard along the inside of the wall that horses will be exposed to.”
Here it is so far: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...3&l=f4d9f37fc7
GypsyQ, hope you don’t mind my reposting your link!***
I just had a carport professionally installed for my ponies. The base model was 10’ wide, 21’ long and 6’ tall at the bottom of the eaves. (The interior hight is 12’) No walls.
I added a foot in hight and four heavy duty anchors, so the total cost came to just under $1,000. (Included installation: a HUGE plus)
I’m adding wood to two sides for a windbreak and the cost will be under $1,500
I looked at more temporary solutions and they were going to cost over half of this, more permanent solution. Plus, I could sell it and make at least half my money back if I want to go that direction in a few years.
very common here for people to stack straw bales for windbreaks.
It’s going to warm up this weekend here in IA, maybe up by you also? For me, sometimes necessity is the kick in the arse I need to just knock out a project that’s been lingering “on the list”.
Sink six 14ft posts (to leave 10ft above ground)-- 3 of them spaced 8ft apart to form the back wall, and then the front corners placed 8ft from the back wall. Pick up $400 worth of 4x8 sheets of cement board car siding, which would go up lickety-split.
Voila you’ve got a 3 sided wind break, and you can circle back to add a roof in the spring. For 2 people with a rented post hole digger and nail gun, it would be a 2 day project.
(I know, I know easier said than done. :))
Real ghetto - secure large tarps on the sides with the worst wind. Since we are in SC, my barn is wide open. So I have hung tarps along the front and sides of my horse’s stalls to break heavy wind plus help to retain what heat they produce. If you secure them tightly their is minimum movement and noise.
Round bales are the most common wind break around here. They’ll look right at home. No ghetto judging here!
Hey Simkie, we’re in winter hell right now with January-esque snow squalls and ridiculous wind.
We put up a $400 ShelterLogic “garage”. I was nervous about how it would do for providing shelter, but so far it’s been great. Deep enough that they can get wholly out of the wind. It’s a bit noisy and sounds rickety, but we sunk extra anchors and it’s holding up ok.
It’s also a ghetto solution, and I dream about the barn we will have, but so far so good. If you’re not deep enough in the depths of winter that something like that would be impossible, for $400 it might be worth a try. Provides a wind break on all 4 sides, really, and of course the inside keeps them out of the rain.
The winds were WICKED yesterday.
Stacked huge bales are awesome. Stack them like bricks - staggered - if you’ve got enough, and even better, make a corner, or even better again, a 3-sided shelter!
To stop them eating, scratching on, or otherwise dislodging the bales, string electric tape along them, using step-in posts or T-posts, and charge with a solar charger if you don’t have power.
Thanks, guys! I’m still debating…
The horses have their barn, and I can leave them in when it’s really terrible. Unfortunately, my field behind the barn doesn’t have any water or electric, or I’d put them in there, and they could use the barn for their wind block.
I’m suuuuper hesitant to put up anything without “adequate” head room, because this happened this spring when Seven reared under her shed in Colorado. Healed fine, but not real keen to go that route again.
Next year, we’ll rejigger the fencing and pull more water/electric and the sacrifice area WILL be behind the barn, so also don’t want to put up anything permanent.
I dig the idea of parking the trailer over there–I need to take a close look and see if I can do that without putting on top of the septic tank. Also hadn’t really thought about putting the bales outside the fence.
Ugh, this is tough. Delivery fee is $100, skid steer fee is $100. Bales are $35. I have NO idea what we would do with the bales, either, once we’re done with them.
Can’t it just be…April? April would be good, I think.
Cheap option: allow a trucking company (tractor-trailer type) to store a trailer or two along the fence line(s) of your paddock. They might even be willing to pay you a storage fee for being allowed to do it. Less in the yard for them to have to move around at plowing time, and instant wind break for you. In the spring, you can do something fancier.
Bonus: If they don’t mind, store your hay for the paddocked horses in one of the empty trailers. You can fill it with hay and then feed the horses out of the trailer instead of hauling in in from the barn. Additionally, once the sun warms the side of the trailer, the horses like to dose along side of it. Call around to independent trucking companies (food trucking, etc) for the best bet on getting a trailer or two.
Won’t horses chew on truck and trailer?
[QUOTE=Chief2;7866784]
Cheap option: allow a trucking company (tractor-trailer type) to store a trailer or two along the fence line(s) of your paddock. They might even be willing to pay you a storage fee for being allowed to do it. Less in the yard for them to have to move around at plowing time, and instant wind break for you. In the spring, you can do something fancier.
Bonus: If they don’t mind, store your hay for the paddocked horses in one of the empty trailers. You can fill it with hay and then feed the horses out of the trailer instead of hauling in in from the barn. Additionally, once the sun warms the side of the trailer, the horses like to dose along side of it. Call around to independent trucking companies (food trucking, etc) for the best bet on getting a trailer or two.[/QUOTE]
That is a COOL idea, but–sadly–won’t work for us. A big truck with trailer can’t get in our driveway. The over the road guy from Allied was just THRILLED about that…they had to unload our crap on the road and drag it all across the lawn to the house. The three pinball machines might have been the favorites.
The hay guy can get in with his 34’ trailer but BARELY.
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